Raising Hope

Frank has been getting more and more play this season on 'Raising Hope' (Tue., 9:30PM ET on FOX), and it looks like he's poised to become Jimmy's new friend to replace the two from season one who've basically disappeared. But they're doing it without minimizing his weirdness.

In fact, the more we learn about Frank, the weirder he is. That said, we were equal parts in love with, disturbed by and impressed with the scale model of the town he built throughout his house. Sure, it's a testament to his loneliness, as we learned when he revealed to Jimmy that he was bullied incessantly through school.

YouTube sensation turned recording artist and TV star Greyson Chance visited 'Good Day LA' (weekdays 9AM PT on Fox) to talk about what might be next in the 14-year-old's ridiculously busy career. It was just last April when Greyson posted his performance of Lady Gaga's 'Paparazzi' onto the Web; since then he's been on 'Ellen,' recorded an album and was cast as young Jimmy on 'Raising Hope.' His character Jimmy was incredibly talented as a child, but as Chance explained it, "Then I get hit by a golf club ... and that changes everything."

Dorothy Lucey asked Chance about rumors that he might be making an appearance on 'Glee,' but he shot them down with a smile. "Please, spread them," he joked. "I would love to be on 'Glee.'"

Andrew Dice Clay and Patton Oswalt partnered up to provide a memorable guest appearance on 'Raising Hope' (Tue., 9:30PM ET on FOX). Ultimately, it turns out Clay was little more than the Great and Powerful Oz to Oswalt's Wizard. Yes, it was as weird as that sounds.

The premise was simple enough: The family decided to try to create investments that Clay would endorse and help them take to market. But it turned out the entire thing was a scam, so nobody was getting a fast ticket out of their lives.

When Virginia came up with the crazy idea of pretending to be someone else on 'Raising Hope' (Tue., 9:30PM ET on FOX), we just knew it was going to end in disaster. She was doing it for Burt, though, in an attempt to allow him to finally impress them -- he's apparently been a chronic disappointment since childhood.

So when they decide to drop by for Thanksgiving, the family pretends to live at one of the rich homes Virginia cleans. It all goes great, until the family comes home early. They were lucky they just got thrown out. But they weren't the only ones lying either.

When Jimmy gets a 13-year old competitor for Sabrina's affections, he has to think quickly on 'Raising Hope' (Tue., 9:30PM ET on FOX). He has to not only get the kid to stop making fun of him in front of her, but he needs to convince the kid not to tell Sabrina that Jimmy loves her. What else to do but hook him up with a girl his own age.

Only this goes terribly wrong when the girl's father -- who happens to be Richard Dean Anderson -- happens to walk up on Jimmy when he's talking to her and it sounds like it's Jimmy who's trying to make a move.

Lucas Neff, who plays the father of the possible-future-serial-killer baby on 'Raising Hope,' stopped by 'Good Day LA' (weekdays, 9AM PT on Fox) to hang out with Jillian Barberie, Dorothy Lucey and his sometime co-star Steve Edwards, who's shown his acting range in a few episodes of 'Raising Hope,' appearing as a news anchor.

Dorothy asked if his other co-star Cloris Leachman was afraid of the baby. "Everybody's afraid of this baby," he said. "It's the most terrifying baby on prime-time." 'Hope' is actually played by a set of twins, Bailey and Riley, who Lucas said are "really great listeners."

Maw Maw has been a lot more coherent this season on 'Raising Hope' (Tue., 9:30PM ET on FOX), and it's a welcome evolution. We'd never want her to lose her crazy completely, but now that they know Cloris Leachman is a regular cast member, they seem prepared to have her more involved in the actual storylines.

This week, we got a series of flashbacks about a time Burt was kidnapped when Jimmy was a little kid. One by one, Virginia, Burt and then Maw Maw revealed further details to the story until the truth lay finally revealed.

All this time, we thought we knew Sabrina on 'Raising Hope' (Tue., 9:30PM ET on FOX). She was a cashier down at the grocery store, so while she seemed more educated and refined than Jimmy, we just chalked it up to a better home experience.

We had no idea, and neither did the Chance family. While working, Burt stumbled upon her family secret. Sabrina comes from money. And not just comfortable living; her father is worth $20 million, as he was more than proud to say.

She apparently shuns him and his excess, not wanting to have money handed to her and instead preferring to earn it. This makes no sense to the Chance family, and even less sense when they discover the symbol of luxury in her father's house: a $2,000 toilet.

We've gotten cozy hanging out in the Chance house on 'Raising Hope,' but tonight's episode (Tues., Sept. 27, 9:30PM ET on Fox) has the crew moving on up.

See, Sabrina doesn't really have to work at the grocery store. Truth is, she comes from money -- like sick mansions and fancy yachts kind of money -- and this week the Chance family will get to meet her crazy, gun-toting father Cap, played by the fabulously funny Stephen Root.

I visited the show while they were on location at Cap's mansion to see everyone all dressed up (Virginia's wearing lipstick! Jimmy and Burt are in short-sleeved button-downs!) and to find out what we'll learn about wealthy Sabrina's past.

Turning her back to the audience, Leachman clasped Regis' hand and asked him, repeatedly, what he'd be doing in the next phase of his career. He tried to tell her that he doesn't know exactly, but hopes he'll be back on TV in some capacity (we've heard he's filming some kind of reality show). It soon became apparent that she wasn't going to let up. "Uh oh, it's one of those," he groaned.

The segment really began to feel like eavesdropping on a private conversation when Leachman moved in closer, and Regis, sounding a little sad, said "I don't know, honey. I really don't know." As Kelly Ripa took a rare moment of silence, a quick shot of the audience suggested that they didn't know how to react to this unusual moment of intimacy, either.

America, no matter your thoughts on the word "adorkable," you like Zooey Deschanel. You really, really like her.

Around 11 million viewers tuned in to 'New Girl' for the actress' series regular TV debut Tuesday night, making the new Fox sitcom the highest-rated show for the night with a 4.8 rating among adults 18-49. The comedy, about a woman who moves in with three dudes after a bad breakup, fared even better among women 18-34, scoring a 6.6 rating in that demo.

After watching the Season 2 premiere of 'Raising Hope' (Tue., 9:30PM ET on FOX), I find myself wondering what other secret talents will be revealed about the Chance family. This episode saw Jimmy discover that he may well have been a musical prodigy as a child.

Sabrina was also impressed with the footage of a young Jimmy singing and playing the piano, with girls swooning. But a freak accident on a mini golf course cost him months of memory, and his musical talent.

The episode was about Jimmy trying to recover those lost gifts, and for a moment while drunk with his parents, the family thought he had. As it turns out, just as booze makes other people look better, it can also make terrible singers sound better.

Even though 'Raising Hope' star Martha Plimpton has been in this business for 30 years -- yep, 30 years! -- her Emmy nod for Lead Actress in a Comedy this year is only the second Emmy nomination of her career. (Her first one was almost a decade ago for her guest starring role on 'Law & Order: SVU' in 2002.)

She's had recent TV turns on 'The Good Wife,' 'Fringe' and 'How to Make It In America,' but now that she's on TV each week playing Virginia, the matriarch of the quick-witted but desperately average Chance family, we mostly see her in jeans and a t-shirt or her character's maid uniform.

Not exactly glamorous. So with TV's big night fast-approaching, I was curious to find out what she was planning on wearing to the awards (Sun., Sept. 18, 8PM ET/5PM PT on Fox).

"Oh I don't know yet. I can't answer that yet ... I don't know," she said on the L.A. set of 'Raising Hope.' But I kept pressing ...

The great comedian W.C. Fields once famously said, "Never work with children or animals." But come on -- sometimes animals are really cute! Oh, and we guess children aren't so bad either. We kid, we kid ...

Whether you need a prematurely precocious tyke to spout one-liners, or a serious little man to play the heir to a lineage of serial killers, it's not the kind of thing you can just CGI in. To tell a real-life story, you're just gonna have to suck it up, work on your knock-knock jokes and get ready to act alongside real-life little ones.

Fall TV is chock full of children, but there are a few special squirts -- and several more mature minors -- that have caught our eye, including a new little Lily on 'Modern Family,' a hot 'Terra Nova' teen and an animated 40-year-old trapped in a 7-year-old's body.